NEW YORK, NY –In a letter to the Members of Congress representing his 37th Senate District and New York’s U.S. Senators, Senator George Latimer (D – Westchester) urged a revamping of the standardized testing requirements of the “No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.”
First adopted in 2002, NCLB created a substantial and rigid system of standardized testing. Although adopted by the Bush Administration, the current U.S. Department of Education has taken an inflexible stance, particularly in regard to children with special needs and English Language Learners (ELL).
In a letter to Congressmembers Lowey, Engel and Maloney, and Senators Schumer and Gillbrand, Latimer wrote: “It has recently been brought to my attention that the United States Department of Education denied the request of the New York State Education Department to provide a waiver which would allow our schools to better meet the needs of children with disabilities and those who are English Language Learners.”
Writing as a state senator sharing constituents, and the ranking member of the Senate Education Committee, Latimer asked his colleagues to work on rewriting NCLB now, saying the current law is failing to meet our children’s needs in both these areas.
In March, the NYS Education Department requested a waiver from the federal law, allowing for developmentally appropriate testing standards for child with serious disabilities, and a second year of prep time for English Language Learners for children just starting to learn English. Both were denied by the US DoE in June, based largely on the federal government’s interpretation of NCLB.
In the letter to Congressmembers, Latimer wrote , “These are both reasonable requests, affecting thousands of students across our state and likely hundreds of thousands across the country. Putting testing above educational needs and abilities creates a system of accountability based on fallacy and failure as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Congress is currently working on legislation to reauthorize and extend NCLB. “As the work on NCLB continues, please keep in mind that these children, with special and diverse needs, are counting on us to protect them and ensure that education works for them,” Latimer concluded.